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I haven't played it but I'm very interested and I was wondering if someone could help me explain the game a bit. How does it play, is it turn based, difficulty and such? I enjoy CKII and EU, but the aspects I enjoy the most are building, developing and researching, while the combat is not central to me. Now, I don't expect to go through WWII without combat but I'm not sure if there's any more to it that that or is it just a more complicated Panzer General?

The basic game itself is really, really bad. If you're going there, you need the expansions. And even then, as a gameplay experience it (IMO) remains inferior to its predecessor or its spinoffs - most prominently Darkest Hour, the best WWII grand strategy game available.

The basic game itself is really, really bad. If you're going there, you need the expansions. And even then, as a gameplay experience it (IMO) remains inferior to its predecessor or its spinoffs - most prominently Darkest Hour, the best WWII grand strategy game available.

Yep. And after getting into DH if you have any passing interest in alt-history scenarios I can't recommend Kaiserreich enough. There's so much detail and generally good stuff in it.

What Heliocentric said - and I said 'morally indistinguishable' as in "you're not really supposed to give it away, so doing so is wrong on a moral basis - if not a legal basis".

Put simply, bundles are bundles - packs are packs - they are meant to stay together and belong to just one person(unless marked otherwise) - the person who bought them OR the person they were gifted to as a whole.

I realise people think they're being 'nice' by giving away duplicates and spares and unwanted DRM - but what they're doing is preventing future sales of that title as effectively - if not MORE effectively - than via conventional piracy (because the recipient believes they have a 'legal' copy and won't think to buy it - at least pirated copies are SOMETIMES bought thereafter).

That Activision is a joke unless you are really into overpriced Call of Duty games you cannot tell apart and shitty licensed games.

I would argue against that slightly. The Transformer games are good fun. Multiplayer is pretty dead, but they are good fun single player and there is some coop. That said, wait for them to be 75%.

Also Singularity isn't a bad shooter, its got and interesting mechanic involving time manipulation and a decent sci fi story to go with it. It was one of Raven software last games I believe. Again wait to see if it goes to 75% off.

DISCLAIMER: Totally aware I'm being a bit of a tool about this, but like all tools, I feel I have good reason. Nothing personal!

Originally Posted by trjp

What Heliocentric said - and I said 'morally indistinguishable' as in "you're not really supposed to give it away, so doing so is wrong on a moral basis - if not a legal basis".

OK, that's a more reasonable thing to say than "morally indistinguishable from piracy." The latter doesn't apply because the two are very easily distinguishable: when you're giving away a bundle Steam key, you're giving away something of which there is only one copy (the whole point behind the key system), and it's a copy you acquired legally with the publisher's consent.

I can appreciate that you're making the argument on moral terms rather than legal ones, I just still don't agree. When I buy a game from Humble, I'm getting two copies of the game. If developers don't like that, they shouldn't participate, or they should get Humble to change how they sell things.

I've never given away keys myself, because I'm still not sure how I feel about the ethics of it (and I'll probably always err toward it being unethical). But I'd never call it piracy, because words mean things. And when huge corporate copyright holders wage holy wars to prop up obsolete profit models, it's important that they continue to mean things.

That Activision is a joke unless you are really into overpriced Call of Duty games you cannot tell apart and shitty licensed games.

To their credit, the Transformers games are actually very good and very loyal to the source material. I've also been told by several people that the Spiderman game is the best one since the playstation.

"Halo is designed to make the player think "I look like that, I am macho sitting in my undies with my xbox""

but what they're doing is preventing future sales of that title as effectively - if not MORE effectively - than via conventional piracy (because the recipient believes they have a 'legal' copy and won't think to buy it - at least pirated copies are SOMETIMES bought thereafter).

Now now, you're making it sound like that key hasn't been paid at all. I'm sure there are lost sales somewhere in the system, but there's plenty who bought one or more extra copies of the same game. No, it doesn't even out, because the lower price points of bundles move a lot more cash for any given game than almost anything else, as it's been documented by many devs who shared their data on blogs etc - they're coming out on top, not losing money.

The new tune that Humble has been playing about spare keys being personal and stuff, to my ears sounds just like the song of "we've gone from a couple guys who came up with a new idea, to a full-fledged business that must respond of every last cent to bean counters over at the VC that gave us monies".

It's not a 'tune' - they get to make the rules, you get to abide by them. If you choose not to, you're the one who is morally wrong (and quite possibly legally wrong).

You seem to think having a 'code' gives you the right to do anything you like with it - but that code came with some conditions and ignoring those isn't really any different to ignoring the 'games from the Pirate Bay are not like games from a shop' rule.

I have some DRM-free games I've acquired more-than-once - can I just send the 'spare' executables to anyone I like? How does that person know I'm not just 'pirating the game for them??'

If you think of 'code' as 'game installer' does it become any clearer - because there's really no difference between those things.

and all this before we get into people who use a Steam Code for a game and then pass-on the Desura code (for the same game from the same bundle) to other people - which is REALLY taking the piss (and yet they'll defend it as 'legit'!!)

It's not a 'tune' - they get to make the rules, you get to abide by them. If you choose not to, you're the one who is morally wrong (and quite possibly legally wrong).

Morally wrong definitely feels like a stretch. You personally have an ethical view on giving them away- one which I happen to kind of share most of the time- but there's nothing immoral about people who don't feel the same. Again, we're talking about people choosing to give away something they acquired with the full consent of the people who made it. No copying, no stealing. No more "immoral" than giving away clothes or books or money or whatever else someone owns and feels like tossing around.

There's also no legal barrier (Humble asks you not to give away the keys, which is a bit silly since they're the ones who sold you two copies of the game, but they're free to ask). But who cares, since we're arguing this on moral grounds?

Morally wrong definitely feels like a stretch. You personally have an ethical view on giving them away- one which I happen to kind of share most of the time- but there's nothing immoral about people who don't feel the same. Again, we're talking about people choosing to give away something they acquired with the full consent of the people who made it. No copying, no stealing. No more "immoral" than giving away clothes or books or money or whatever else someone owns and feels like tossing around.

There's also no legal barrier (Humble asks you not to give away the keys, which is a bit silly since they're the ones who sold you two copies of the game, but they're free to ask). But who cares, since we're arguing this on moral grounds?

What's the difference between morals and ethics? As I understand it, I have a code of ethics. Any action that violates that code is morally wrong. Whether it's a little white lie or murder, they are both on the 'wrong' side of the line (though a long distance apart).

Humble is selling you one product, a bundle of games, that you can redeem on Steam. They are trusting their customers not to give that product away while still keeping parts of it for themselves. That trust comes as part of the DRM-free ideal. Betraying someone's trust is morally wrong, so I don't do it. Simple as that.